Back in California

After three long flights, navigating airports in Spanish, Portuguese, and English, and a five hour time change . . . we landed safely in Ontario, California, at 11:15 on Friday, December 3rd.

Leaving Asuncion on Thursday, we were overwhelmed with the heat and humidity that signaled the end of spring and the start of summer. Until then, the heat had been mild and we had enjoyed a long period of enjoyable spring-like weather. It felt like we were getting out just in time, though. In the time it took Brandon to load up our five bags and stroller into the car, he was drenched in sweat. Bailey and I hid out in the apartment until the last minute since we were both in pants in anticipation of chilly airplanes and winter conditions once we reached our destination.

The first flight, from Asuncion to Sao Paulo, Brazil, was the shortest of the three; only two hours long. After paying careful attention to the safety video, Bailey napped for most of the flight.

When we arrived in Brazil, though, we realized that we were never given boarding passes for the remaining two legs of our journey. We tracked down our gate using the information on our itinerary, and the flight attendants got us set up just in time. Since we had to wait for our boarding passes, we were the last people on the flight; we felt every eye on us as we boarded, and most rolled a bit with an "oh great" look towards Bailey. Thankfully we were seated towards the back of the plane, in the center section next to a very nice looking woman. But once we sat down, one of the sterwardesses (soon to be nicknamed "the warden") saw that we had a baby in tow and forcefully moved the woman to an open seat a few rows ahead of us. The woman was quite confused as to why she was being moved, but she obeyed the command and I'm sure she enjoyed her flight more than if she had stayed with us.

One of Bailey's many nicknames is "wiggle-worm" and that title doesn't just apply to her waking hours. Even during her sleep, she's tossing and turning, rolling from one end of her crib to the other during the course of the night. Trying to get her to sleep peacefully on my chest during the flight, then, what quite a feat. Every 10-15 minutes she would cry out in discomfort, shift her weight around and settle back in for another short bit, before repeating the whole process over and over and over again. Needless to say, Mommy didn't get much rest.

Daddy slept fine, though, for those of you who were wondering. Classic Brandon moment: during one of Bailey's fussy moments, he awoke to say to me: "why don't you just stand up with her, or something?" Being the obedient wife that I am, I fought back the snide comment welling up inside of me and stood up with Bailey. After pacing in the aisle for a few minutes, I returned to our row to see Brandon sprawled out across all three seats, sleeping soundly, unlike the monster in my arms. Anyone surprised?

Towards the end of the flight, Bailey was up and ready to play, so we set her up in the seat between Brandon and me. She enjoyed playing with our empty plastic cups and the few quiet toys we brought with us.

Once we arrived safely in Houston and got ourselves (and our bags) through immigration, we truly enjoyed our four hour layover. We treated ourselves to some REAL coffee at Starbucks (we don't have a coffee pot so all we have at home is instant) and some delicious breakfast burritos. Bailey got to sprawl out on her blanket and have some unconfined playtime before heading off to Ontario.

Wiggle-worm was true to her name on the last flight, too. Thankfully, though, she doesn't scream while she siggles, which means she's not a nuiscance to everyone on the plane, just to Mommy and Daddy. But we arrived safely and have adjusted quickly to the time change and 180* shift in the weather.

Here is the remainder of the alphabet from last week. Enjoy reading about more items and events from the past four months in Paraguay! And please forgive me for not having photos to go with every letter this week. I've tried to capture most every photo-worthy moment, I just didn't realize that a bottle of yogurt and the fruit scale at the grocery store would be such things (see below for details)!

N is for noquis, a pasta looking food that is actually a pureed potato pressed into a shell shape. It’s served just like you would pasta, just with a heartier texture.

O is for the obnoxious music that plays behind the apartments on some weekends. The music will start on Friday afternoon and play all through the weekend, until the wee hours of Monday morning.

P is for Pechugon, one of the two main chicken companies in Paraguay. The chickens that were at the chicken ranch we visited are sold to this company.

P is also for Paulistas, a Brazilian Churresqueria where they have a full salad bar plus waiters that walk around with huge skewers of meat, offering you various cuts all night long. The desserts are delicious, too!

Q is for Q-tips! They’ve become increasingly essential, as Bailey’s struggled to poop as of late. We’ll leave it at that . . .

R is for rainy days in November that are spent in shorts and tank tops, with the air conditioner running!

S is for Skype! It’s been wonderful to stay in touch with our families and friends using FREE video chatting.

T is for tartas, a pot-pie type dish that you can fill with just about anything. The cantina at school serves one with ham and cheese on a weekly basis. We’ve had several with chicken, squash, chard, pizza sauce . . .

T is also for TURKEY DAY! We had a fun day with the missionaries that lead the church we’ve been attending. Bailey got to play with their little kids, Brandon got to watch football, and we all enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving meal!

U is for Uno style Jenga. You have the stack of blocks like Jenga, but the blocks are colored and numbered. Just like in Uno, you have to follow the previous person’s move with the same number or the same color, only you’re pulling blocks, not playing cards.

V is for the Virgen del Carmen Despensa. A “despensa” is like a 7-11, a local shop with snacks, drinks and (some) essentials. The Despensa Virgen del Carmen is a lot closer than the grocery store so we’ve gone there a few times to pick up things we’ve forgotten (or for a late night soda run). Disclaimer: this is not a photo of "our' despensa! Last time we were there I wasn't thinking about the blog (sorry) and so I forgot to take a picture. I borrowed this pic from the internet, but you get the idea . . .

W is for weighing and pricing fruit and bread and cheese and meat BEFORE going to the cash register at the grocery store. Each section has their own scale, so be sure not to take your fruit to the bread lady!

X is for Xerox! Anything that teachers need photocopied for their classes have to be sent off campus for duplicating. This means that there is NO same-day printing. Anything you need has to be sent off at least 48 hours in advance. Talk about being forced to plan ahead!

Y is for yogurt that is only found in liquid form. It’s great for topping fruit with or drinking straight (or in a smoothie), just leave the spoon behind!

Z is for the zebra-print shoes that Bailey and Mommy adore and Daddy thinks are silly.

ABC's (Part 1)

As we get ready to leave Paraguay, I thought it would be appropriate to share some of the highlights of our time here so far. So, in true elementary school teacher fashion, I'm going to list one item or event for each letter of the alphabet. This week, I'll do A-M, next week, N-Z. Enjoy!

A is for apartment life. There are 11 of us living in the 6 apartments on campus and have enjoyed meals together, weekly grocery outings, movie nights, grading parties, volleyball and BBQ's.

B is for begbugs, which we've battled three times in the apartments.

C is for Cerro, the Paraguayan futbol team Brandon has chosen to root for.

D is for downtown where we go to work on our residency paperwork and where we have also done some shopping.

E is for empanadas - flaky pastry-type shell filled with ham and cheese or egg or chicken or ground beef or . . .

F is for Family Adventure Day. A fun-filled night at school with carnival type games to raise money for the much needed playground equipment.

G is for guards that stand watch outside our school and at many houses in the neighborhood and at local businesses, keeping trouble at bay.

H is for horses that share the road with cars, motorcycles and buses.

I is for ice cream at Dona Angela! They sell it by the kilogram for you to take home, too!

J is for jogging at Parque de Salud.

K is for kilogram, used to weigh our fruit, bread, cheese, meat, and Bailey!

L is for Lomito Arabe. You start with a bread that's half-way between a tortilla and pita bread (called arabe), brush it with mayonayse (sometimes garlic mayo), add some tomato and lettuce, and your choice of chicken or beef (or mixto). Wrap it up like a burrito and enjoy!

M is for meal share! It's a tradition we've started with friends in the apartments where we each cook our own dinners, but eat together and share what we've made; we've had some interesting combinations (chicken salad sandwiches and tacos, anyone?!).

(M is also for Mi Esperanza, the church that we are attending in Asuncion.)

Counting Down

Good morning, folks! That's Brandon's contribution to this week's post. When I asked him if there was anything specific he wanted me to write about he said to say "good morning, folks." So there you go.

As of today (well, as of Monday, when I started writing the post), there are eight teaching days left; five this week, and three next. The following week is finals for the high school students, which means half days for all teachers and no classes for the specials/elective teachers (like Brandon).

There are also 18 days until we leave for California. Wow, that's snuck up on us quickly!

Thanksgiving is approaching, too, which is bittersweet for us. The bitterness comes - obviously - from the fact that we won't be able to enjoy the time with our family (or with the traditional foods that we've come to expect on turkey day!). It's been "sweet," though, to have had two different families on campus invite us to join them as they do their best to have an American Thanksgiving despite the fact that many items are not available. I've been put in charge of making mashed potatoes and an apple pie for the event. Secretly, though, I'm bummed that I can't make dressing; the missionary we're having lunch with was SO excited about the box of StoveTop stuffing that she got from the states. And while I know that StoveTop is "traditional" for many families, I will miss the cornbread dressing my mom always makes.

With all the counting down comes anxiety (for me, Stacy) about our trip back to California. Paraguay has become home for me and, while I love you all dearly and am excited to see you and spend time with you, I'm not looking forward to being away from home for two months. I'm also anxious about having to invade other people's homes for the time we're back. That said, there are lots of things that we have missed! Here is the countdown of the top five things Brandon and I have missed (in no particular order):

Stacy’s List:

1. Flushing toilet paper

2. Carpet

3. The Vine

4. Bathtubs

5. Clean floors

Brandon’s List:

1. Football with friends

2. The Vine

3. My Truck

4. Aunt Diana

5. Sports Illustrated

Same Same But Different

When Brandon and I went to Cambodia a few summers back, there was a t-shirt that many of our translators were wearing (and some of our team bought, too) that said "Same Same" on the front, and on the back "But Different." It was a reminder that, for all our external differences, we were all people, all members of the human race. And by placing the "Same Same" on the front of the shirt, it placed the focus on the commonalities that united us, rather than on the differences that could cause division. "Same Same But Different" became the running joke of the trip and helped keep us sane as we were faced with "different" situations and chose to focus on the "same".

I needed that shirt this week.

Coming to a private Christian school in South America, I (I think it's safe to say "we") expected a lot of "different." Don't get me wrong, there are many things that set these students apart from those we taught and coached back in the states. But the school environment itself . . . there's a whole lot more "same same" than I expected. Same talk about test scores, just a different test. Same worry about student performance, just at a different level (i.e. worried about the kids that aren't getting B's or better, rather than the ones that are outright failing). Same group of teachers who'll complain about anything, just different topics. And this week, there was another "same" that we were made acutely aware of.

Same level of parent involvement.

Friday of last week was the first annual "Family Adventure Night" at school. Each grade level was partnered with another (one elementary grade with a middle/high school grade) and came up with a carnival type game with prizes and decorations. The field at school was filled with EZ-up type tents for the games, a stage for a live band, tables and chairs for socializing, and a cantina serving hamburgers, meat skewers (asaditos), sodas, and desserts. The event was sponsored by PTA as a fundraiser for the playground that they are trying to replace on the elementary side of campus. Additionally, they had parents with connections help sponsor the event: Pulp (a national brand of soft drink), the Yacht Club, Farmacia (a chain of pharmacies), and Gonzalez Gimenez (a national Best Buy type store chain). Same same, but different.

When the idea was first pitched to the teachers, they were assured that it would be a parent-run event; that they only needed to have their students maybe help with decorations for the tent and they themselves serve a one hour shift (of the four hour event). And here's where the "same same" comes in. For the teacher's who were lucky enough to have ultra-involved PTA parents in their grade, things went off beautifully. Some teachers didn't even know what game they were doing or when their shift was because the parents took over and ran the entire thing. For the teacher's who weren't so lucky . . . they planned, prepared and executed the booths without any parent help and spent the entire night in the booth alone. Sound familiar?

Watching the events of that night unfold, I kept thinking about how similarly an event like this would have gone down back in California. And about how parental involvement at a big event is so telling of their involvement on a daily basis. The parents that help with homework and talk to the teachers about how to help their student do better are the same ones running games and getting involved in school events. The parents that don't help with homework (they just hire someone to do that for them) are the same ones who dropped their kids off (or had their drivers chauffeur them to and from the event). Same same, but different.

That said, the night really was a lot of fun! Kids were running from booth to booth, trying to shoot a lit candle with a water gun, catch foam fish out of a kiddie pool with a hook, score goals on a mini net, and throw water balloons at fellow students (and Brandon). The band that plays for high school chapel played covers of many popular songs (and did so well) and the food was delicious! Parents and teachers had the opportunity to socialize outside of the academic realm and the students got to play around in their "real" clothes, not their uniforms. It's amazing how different they look when they're NOT in their navy blue ACA polo shirt!

The event was also successful financially. By charging only 1,000 Guarani (less than 25 cents) to enter the event, plus tickets for food ($1.25 for a hamburger, 25 cents for desserts) and games (also 25 cents each), PTA raised nearly $1,000 US dollars toward the playground. They are already talking about a repeat event next year, hoping for an even bigger turn out and more support.

As we prepare to come back to California in a few weeks and have started to think about how to describe our experience so far, the best way to say it is: "Same Same, But Different" Schools are still schools, teachers still teachers. Parents are still parents and kids will always just be kids.

anotheronething

Before resuming teaching after a week at camp, Brandon enjoying a weekend golf outing with one of the students (a semi-pro here in Paraguay). It was a beautiful day and he golfed well, considering it's been at least six months since he last played.

We thought that with camps being over and company gone, it would be time to get back to "normal" life. But alas, normalcy alluded us for yet another week.

I had been battling a cough - no sore throat, no fever, just a cough - and Brandon made me promise to see a doctor if it wasn't better when he returned from camp. Since it only got worse while he was away, I made an appointment and saw the doctor on Tuesday. I felt silly - a grown woman going to see a doctor over a little hacking - but the doctor said that my lungs were heavily congested and prescribed a cough syrup and antibiotic to fight off the bronchitis. He told me to hold off on the antibiotic unless I wasn't feeling better in a few days (since anything I take gets passed on to Bailey), and only has me taking the child's dosage of the cough syrup, for the same reason. As I type, I'm feeling better and haven't taken the cough syrup in 36 hours.

(Funny side note: I needed a prescription for the cough syrup, but the antibiotics are "over the counter" . . . does that seem backwards to anyone else?)

Two short days later, we were once again temporarily evicted from our apartment as the exterminators returned to re-treat the entire building. You see, the bed bugs returned, in a different apartment, and the company was still under their 30 day guarantee. I have to laugh, though, at the fact that there were ants on our kitchen counter as I went in the apartment to open windows to air out the place before returning for the evening. Hummm . . . .

Thursdays are also the days we are taking Spanish lessons. We have recruited one of the teachers at school to be our profesora and she has been fabulous. It's a "Spanish only" hour and she is very patient with us as we stumble through the vocabulary. We've started with numbers, family, kitchen items and frequently used phrases for use on the buses. I'm keeping my notes pinned to the curtains in the kitchen so I see them while I'm cooking and washing dishes.

Brandon has been busy getting ready for the start of the soccer season here at school. He will be coaching both the girls and the boys teams (for now) and spent much of his time between classes shopping for jerseys and equipment around town. The girl's team will start practices this week, while the boys won't start until next. The good thing is that practices run the same time as I do tutoring, so we (hopefully) won't miss out on the family time that we have come to enjoy in the evenings!

The weekend ended rather uneventfully and we almost forgot that it was Halloween. It's not widely celebrated here, though some of the stores were selling the plastic pumpkin baskets, decorations, and costumes. Late in the afternoon, we remembered that Grandma brought us a "My First Halloween" bib, so we took a few pictures . . . and that was the extent of the festivities.

High School Camp

After two weeks of a full house, last week found Bailey and I (Stacy) alone for four days as Brandon went off to camp with the high school students. He was the counselor for the senior boys and thoroughly enjoyed his time with them. They had opportunities to discuss boy issues candidly and Brandon is hopeful that this past week will pave the way for more discipleship opportunities and perhaps even regular meetings with some or all of the boys. Here's a picture of him with the other staffers. He's the one to the left of center in the tight ACA polo, knee socks, and MY shorts! :)

While at camp, the seniors went on a "seniors only" excursion to a little river on the camp grounds and took some silly pictures together:

Traditionally, Wednesday of camp is "family day" where the parents come and visit their students. Bailey and I hitched a ride with the kindergarten teacher (whose daughter was up at camp) and visited Brandon. In a way, though, it made us miss each other more than if we had just waited until he got home Thursday afternoon. That said, it was nice to see Brandon and to see a new side of Paraguay. Until now, we've been stuck in the city on crowded streets lined with houses and businesses. The ride out to camp was a glimpse into a more rural area and THAT was a sight for sore eyes.

And one final note: After three months of city-only driving, with maximum speeds of maybe 40 miles per hour, zooming along at 70+ seemed downright reckless!

Time with the Fulbrights

This past week we spent our time catching up with Grandma Fulbright and Papa Dave. We did a lot of the more "touristy" things that we've blogged about before, so I'll refrain from re-explaining our outings. Plus, my mom took most of the pictures this week and I'd hate to bore you with paragraph after paragraph of narrative without some photo breaks to liven things up. So instead, here are a few shots of Bailey with Grandma and Papa; enjoy!

Reading her zoo animal book with Papa.

Sitting with Grandma, laughing at Papa

(before trying to bite the arm of the chair . . . yum?!?)

Waiting for a bus with Grandma.

Helping Grandma and Papa barter with the locals.

Practicing standing with Grandma and Papa!

Cheering on Daddy as he played volleyball.